rionaleonhart: final fantasy x-2: the sun is rising, yuna looks to the future. (NOOOOOOOOO)
Which of you lovely people anonymously sent me the badges? Thank you so much! The Pokémon and Baker Street ones are my favourites; the one that looks vaguely like Zombie Derren Brown alarms me quite a lot. ♥!


In spite of all my worries about watching it, Dead Set, it turns out, doesn't freak me out nearly as much as Being Human, which I am genuinely considering giving up. I love Annie and Mitchell and (most of the time) George, and I love the relationships they have with each other, but every time I watch Being Human it just upsets and depresses me. When I start thinking 'there's a new episode coming up' with dread rather than excitement, it's probably time to stop watching.

Not that Dead Set is a festival of delight, but I'm able to watch it in a slightly more detached way, possibly because I know a bit more about what's going on behind the scenes and possibly because the threat it deals with is very specific and (let us hope) fictional.

A few not-really-spoilery thoughts on Dead Set: whilst watching, I found myself thinking on many occasions that Kelly (whom I liked very much) looked really rather similar to Lisbon of The Mentalist.

Therefore, Lisbon and her team need to fight zombies.

I don't think anyone can argue with that logic.

Grayson is a sweetheart. Patrick is an arsehole, but an arsehole who appears to be to at least some extent based on the writer, which is interesting (don't hate yourself, Brooker!). Riq is sort of adorable. Kelly is my favourite character, and I loved the way her fear and despair and determination were portrayed. I liked the fact that the housemates, despite all their failings, were fundamentally decent people who cared about each other and worked together; it would have been easy to go 'oh, look, the only survivors are the absolute dregs of humanity in the Big Brother house', but it was actually much less cynical than it could have been. We know you don't really hate humanity, Brooker; you're not fooling anyone.

Although I generally feel that zombies should be slow-moving, I actually didn't mind the running zombies here. Putting the studio out of action very quickly was necessary for the plot, so they sort of had to be excused, and I'd heard that Brooker had originally planned to set it over a longer period of time and show how the zombies slowed down as they decayed, which makes a sort of sense; as the muscles are presumably still intact, why shouldn't a freshly turned zombie be able to run as fast as a human?

I think Dead Set is one of the few things I've watched and enjoyed and yet have absolutely no desire to cross over with Pokémon. Still wouldn't mind the RPF crossover in which David Mitchell and Charlie Brooker find themselves facing the undead hordes, though. The problem is that I have a complete aversion to real-person deathfic, so I'd have to somehow contrive an unlikely happy ending. THE ZOMBIES DECIDE THAT BROOKER IS TOO BITTER TO EAT. Brooker is mildly offended but, let's be honest, not complaining. Mitchell survives using his hitherto undisclosed magical powers. No, I'm not entirely certain this idea is going to work.
rionaleonhart: final fantasy x-2: the sun is rising, yuna looks to the future. (waiting for you (anniesj))
Er, my thoughts on Doctor Who's 'The End of Time: Part Two' are coming a little late, because I typed up this entry just after the episode aired and then, for some reason, didn't post it for a fortnight. Have some belated notes on the end of a televisual era.


Doctor Who: 'The End of Time, Part Two'. )
rionaleonhart: final fantasy x-2: the sun is rising, yuna looks to the future. (WHY WHY WHY)
Presumably, Pyramid Head's Pokémon would be Magneton and Dugtrio. Oh, and Weezing. Perhaps Combee, but I think Combee may be a tiny bit too cute for Pyramid Head. Can you imagine a Silent Hill filled with Combee? OH, WAIT, YOU DON'T HAVE TO.


I'M NOT PROCRASTINATING


Oh, all right, I'll go back to analysing pronoun use in two-year-olds. The 'how would Derren Brown/Merlin and Arthur/Annie, Mitchell and George/Ash Ketchum fare in Silent Hill?' entry will have to wait.

Did you just read Derren/Merlin, Arthur/Annie and George/Ash Ketchum as pairings? I tried to think of a way of phrasing it that didn't have that ambiguity, but eventually I decided that I sort of liked having that ambiguity there. Arthur/Annie could actually be bizarrely cute. Although not nearly as cute as Annie and Gwen becoming best friends, which clearly needs to happen.

(George/Ash would be a terrible pairing. I sort of want to see it written, just because it would not work on any level at all. Derren/Merlin, meanwhile, could be either brilliant or utterly horrifying. Possibly both at the same time.)

I would also rather like to drop Castiel into Silent Hill, and I don't quite know why. FURTHER MUSINGS ON THIS MATTER TO COME LATER. POSSIBLY. (Ooh, and Ruby! Perhaps she and Castiel could meet in the town, because I think they could have a very interesting dynamic together. And Sam Winchester's Silent Hill must have changed so much since the end of the third season.)
rionaleonhart: final fantasy x-2: the sun is rising, yuna looks to the future. (guess it's my lucky number)
A while ago, [livejournal.com profile] misscam posted an entry about the hard time female characters get in fandom and invited everyone to talk about female characters they loved in the comments. I thought that this was a lovely idea, and so I am completely stealing it. Because I do tend to talk about male characters far more than I talk about female ones, and that's not right. There are plenty of female characters I adore. Here are some of them.

I love the women of House. I love poor adorable Cameron and her tendency to become attached to patients and her emotional masochism. I love longsuffering, sarcastic, awesome Cuddy. I LOVE THE BUDDY COP DUO THAT CAMERON AND CUDDY HAVE FORMED IN MY MIND. I love Thirteen when she is vulnerable and when she has that ridiculously cute grin or that little smile and when she is rolling her eyes and when she is going 'THESE ARE NOT THE CORRECT DRUGS; THEY ARE INSUFFICIENTLY CRAP' and when she is saying words and when she is on the screen.

I love Donna of Doctor Who. I love that she could so easily have been a shallow, exaggerated comic character, but that the writers instead took her and made something wonderful. I love that she made me emotionally invested in Doctor Who again; I cared about what happened to her, which was something I hadn't felt about any Doctor Who character (with the possible exception of the Master) since Eccleston's regeneration. I love that she will stand up to the Doctor, and she won't take 'I AM A TIME LORD AND THEREFORE MORALLY SUPERIOR' for an answer. She is compassionate and awesome and ridiculous and amazing and I adore her.

I love Toph of Avatar. She is mocking and hilarious and kicks arse, and the way she uses Earthbending to see is utterly fascinating. Katara, meanwhile, is lovely and awesome in equal measures, and Ty Lee is just the most adorable antagonist ever, bless her. I also love the fact that Toph and Katara both have very real flaws, and that these flaws in no way stop them from being wonderful.

I love Annie of Being Human, because she is adorable. I love her inept attempts to conform to the cultural image of what a ghost should be like. I love that she wants to be in Hufflepuff and make glittery cards. I love the little things she does for Owen, and her little smile when he notices them (even if he does not deserve them. Why don't you adorably haunt my house, Annie?). I love her friendship with Mitchell and George, and the ridiculous amounts of chemistry they all have.

These certainly aren't all the female characters I love (Carla, Elliot, Tosh, Sharpay, Fran, Celes, Selphie, Quistis, Freya, Yuna, Rikku, Lulu, Paine, Larxene, Ruby, Bela, Pamela, Ellen, Gwen, Morgana, Rose Tyler, Alex Drake, Samantha Carter, Luna Lovegood, Sara Tancredi...), but it's a start. Who are your favourite female characters? I'd love to hear about why you love them in the comments.
rionaleonhart: final fantasy x-2: the sun is rising, yuna looks to the future. (not sure i like your tone)
Is anyone else watching Boy Meets Girl? It is an ITV four-part comedy drama, airing at nine o'clock on Fridays; two parts have been shown so far. I cannot believe I've seen nothing about it on my flist, because the basic premise is that a man and a woman are hit by lightning and swap bodies. They swap bodies, you guys. The actress is very convincing as a man, and someone is clearly having enormous amounts of fun with the romance. Male/male kisses in which one of the men is mentally a woman! A male/female sex scene in which the woman is mentally a man, and it is weird and a bit uncomfortable and also really hot! (It's not an explicit sex scene; the 'really hot' comes largely from the bizarre circumstances.) THIS IS US. THIS IS WHAT WE WRITE. IT IS THERE ON THE SCREEN. I CANNOT BELIEVE NOBODY IS WATCHING IT.

I should probably mention that I did wake up last night in horrible pain, convinced that I was actually a man and that the agony was due to my new female body reacting badly to the bodyswap (I wish I were joking), so I can't promise that watching Boy Meets Girl will not have unwelcome effects. (I suspect Boy Meets Girl may have been responsible only for the sleep-addled gender confusion, rather than the pain itself, but can I be sure?)

Here are some characters that should swap bodies:

- Gene Hunt and Alex Drake. It would be excellent. Alex would be forced to tell Gene off constantly for fondling his new breasts.

- Merlin and Arthur. SUDDENLY ARTHUR HAS MAGICAL POWERS AND NO IDEA OF HOW TO CONTROL THEM. Merlin, for his part, finds himself completely unable to play the role of the dutiful son and terrified that Arthur is going to get himself executed.

- Katara and Toph could be an interesting bodyswap. Toph would have working eyes, but she wouldn't have Earthbending, and she'd know which she prefers. "You can't even see what's behind you! How do you people cope?"

- Ooh! George and Mitchell! Suddenly, George can hear heartbeats and Mitchell undergoes a hideously painful transformation at the full moon. That could be really interesting, actually. Each would have to help the other deal with his condition.

- I like to think that Balthier and Fran steal a magical artefact that causes them to swap bodies every other week. Fran hates being without her sharp Viera senses. Balthier finds it all rather amusing.


I watched the third episode of Being Human today, and I still love George/Annie/Mitchell so much. So much! Their polyamorous supernatural love is so true. Also, I would like to give Annie many hugs.
rionaleonhart: final fantasy versus xiii: a young woman at night, her back to you, the moon high above. (nor women neither)
I forgot to mention in my last entry that I would like to see Merlin meet the supernatural trio of Being Human! They can all be misfits together. Mitchell and/or George might resent him a little at first, because amazing magical abilities are not really the worst possible thing with which to be cursed, but eventually they would all come to love each other.

Also, I watched the pilot episode yesterday. Not-really-spoilery notes:

- I like Pilot!Mitchell and Annie quite a lot, but I think I prefer the Mitchell and Annie from the actual series. Perhaps because the ones from the actual series were the first ones I met; perhaps because I know not to get too attached to the actors in the pilot. (Actually, I like the pilot actors an enormous amount. It is a very good thing that I also enormously love the actors from the actual series.)

- It took a second watching for me to notice that there is an entire scene in which Mitchell and George are hanging out and chatting whilst George is wearing exactly no clothes. My powers of observation are fearsome.

- THAT SCENE WITH THE ESTATE AGENT. AND THEN THE THRESHOLD. OH, MITCHELL. YOU ARE MAGNIFICENT.

- I laughed so hard at 'It's like my body is made out of diamonds'. Someone's been reading Twilight.

- MITCHELL AND GEORGE AND ANNIE SIT AROUND AND DISCUSS WHICH HOGWARTS HOUSES THEY WOULD BE IN.

I WANT TO BE THEIR FRIEND.

Do they also discuss what Pokémon they would have? Well, I'm certainly going to.

The obvious thing to say would be that Annie has a Ghost-type, Mitchell has a Dark-type and George has something wolfish. Actually, George would probably go for the most unwolflike Pokémon he could find, given that he is not terribly happy about his condition. Something like a Pichu. Mitchell and Annie would mock him a lot for it.

George keeps catching sight of what looks like a Mightyena out of the corner of his eye. It is slowly driving him mad.

OH, WAIT: perhaps Mitchell has a Mightyena. George would throw a fit.

Actually, I think the Pokémon for Mitchell might be a Houndoom. Which, whilst not as wolflike as Mightyena, is probably still wolflike enough to make George terribly uncomfortable. Sorry, George; you're probably not going to like Mitchell's Pokémon, whatever I eventually decide to give him.

Annie is difficult, though, because no Ghost Pokémon really seems to fit her. Shuppet, whilst terribly cute in appearance, feeds on feelings of envy and malice and vengefulness, which doesn't strike me as very Annie-ish. (I like to think that the house has Shuppet infestations when one of the trio is in a particularly dark mood, however.)

Perhaps Annie can't catch Pokémon! In the tower in Lavender Town, after all, the Pokémon on the player's team are terrified of the ghosts. Perhaps they all run away from her. She is quite upset by this. Mitchell takes it upon himself to train an Eevee not to be afraid of her, and ropes George into it as well. Bless them.


Actually, as the pilot is not available on the Being Human DVD, I can link you to it with no guilt whatsoever! You can watch it here on YouTube. If you have not yet seen any Being Human, give it a try! (I should mention that Mitchell and Annie were recast for the actual series, so try not to fall too in love with the actors in the pilot. Feel free to fall in love with the characters, though!)

Seriously: watch it. It is right there. It is a drama-with-humour about a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost who share a house. I'm sure some of you will be tempted.
rionaleonhart: top gear: the start button on a bugatti veyron. (going down tonight)
A couple of days ago, [livejournal.com profile] reipan came over to introduce me to Being Human! (A friend of my father's was also there for lunch; he is a man of about sixty who delights in making offensive comments, and he took a great liking to Rei and, rather alarmingly, wrote a poem advising her to get pregnant. I don't know. It was odd.)

I have now watched the first two episodes of Being Human, and I already like it very much indeed. I am looking forward to seeing the rest! (I have been so spoilt by American television. Six episodes feels like nothing.)

Thoughts!

- Annie is really, really cute. I want one haunting my house.

- How much George/Annie/Mitchell is on the Internet? Because I can guarantee that it will not be enough. They are amazing, and I want so much fanfiction about their loving adorable three-way relationship.

A few specific notes, with spoilers for the second episode. )

- SERIOUSLY. GEORGE/ANNIE/MITCHELL. THEY MOCK EACH OTHER AND THEY CARE ABOUT EACH OTHER AND THEY ARE WONDERFUL.


Also, my housemate made me watch an episode of CSI: Miami last night, and the main thought I took from this was that there should be a CSI: Camelot. Half the time the conclusion will be 'GASP, IT WAS MAGIC' (everyone will be astonished every time, despite the number of magical deaths they have already investigated), and the rest of the time it will be 'oh, Uther's just been killing people again'. It would be dreadful. I'd love it.